The Prince of Peace

The recent award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Pres. Barack Obama conjures many feelings for any American follower of Christ. On the one hand, Pres. Obama claims to be a Christian, and though the evidence for that claim may be slim (his opportunistic joining of Trinity United Church of Christ, but his convenient absence from its pews when the Rev. Jeremiah Wright issued his jeremiads against the United States; the paucity of a spiritual life discernible from his published writings; his generalized appeals to "social justice" rather than salvation), I know of no evidence to the contrary. Christians worthy of the name must be persons of peace, yet peace must not be the end to itself. The end must be that God's will be done. Too many are the despots, the crackpots, the psychopaths who will exploit the Christian's preference for peace by subjugating those within their realms. Obama seems to get this: he opens up a dialogue with those who wish us ill, yet deliberates over the use of force. Jesus asked: what king with 10,000 men, who cannot withstand a rival coming with 20,000, will not sue for peace "while [the enemy] is still a long way off" (Luke 14: 31-2)? Curiously, that phrase "still a long way off" appears a chapter later in Luke's gospel in the parable of the Prodigal. After squandering his father's patrimony, the Prodigal resolved to seek his mercy by working as a field hand. But while the Prodigal was "still a long way off," his father recognized him "and was filled with compassion" (Luke 15: 20). Is there something to recognition of our plight from a distance that dictates the faith response? After all, there is nothing to make the king with 20,000 men accept or grant terms to his rival.

The problem of course, is that these other kings with whom Pres. Obama might treat have no interest in the lives of their army and are prepared to sacrifice any and all of them-even themselves if it means a holy martyrdom. In the 13 centuries of conflict between the Islamic world and the Christian West, Islamic leaders have been less concerned over the body count than over their claim to exclusive religious purity and their hegemony over discrete territory. May Nobel laureate and United States Pres. Barack Obama recognize from a holy distance that regardless of the size of his army, that which will prevail is the justness of his cause. In that will be found the peace of God, that passes human understanding.